Growing Strong
by lunalovespudding3
Summary: Points in the lives of Renly Baratheon and Loras Tyrell, from their beginning to their end. Some fluff, bit of angst.


**So I've recently obsessed myself with Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire. And I also obsessed myself with Renly and Loras's relationship. So I wrote this little thing - I've taken a few liberties with their age (I aged Loras up a few years), but tried to stick mostly to canon. Enjoy!**

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When Renly Baratheon meets his squire, he is fourteen. The boy is twelve, and he charms everyone. Renly thinks he will be useless, but he sees almost immediately that this is not the case. Loras Tyrell may be sweet (and Renly can't stop himself from noticing that he will be quite beautiful in years to come), but he is willing to work as hard as Renly commands. The two boys become friends quickly, and they play around Storm's End as freely as they can. When they play (or are in the same room, for that matter), Loras seldom takes his eyes off his lord (Renly, he reminds himself. Renly, ever since weeks after they met). He tells himself it's because he wants to protect his friend.

And when Renly is sixteen and Loras fourteen, and Loras rushes at the visiting lord's son who insults Renly and his family (a foolish move in any case, to start with), that's what he tells himself as he holds the boy back. He tells himself it's adrenaline making his heart beat like a drum roll, not the feel of Loras's hair against his cheek, his sheer closeness.

But then Renly is eighteen and Loras is sixteen and they've grown so close that it's become normal for Renly to stroke Loras's hair, for Loras to lean back into Renly's lap, when they're alone. Then, neither of them knows what to think, what to tell themselves, when Loras takes Renly's hand as he goes to push his hair back and kisses it, slower than the way he might kiss a visiting lady's hand and more like the way a husband might kiss his wife's hand before sleep. He doesn't know what to think when Renly doesn't pull away or strike him on the spot like he expects (he didn't really want reciprocation, not really, he just wants to make how he feels clear). Renly just stares, like he can't quite believe it. Can't believe the adoring look in Loras's eyes, the gentle smile curving his lips. He can't say a word, so he grabs the back of Loras's head and pulls him up for a kiss, a real kiss.

Later, Renly is twenty and Loras is eighteen, and people are talking of marriage. They know it will happen, but when Renly is forced to announce his engagement to Margaery Tyrell, the adored sister of Loras, they despair. And their embraces become frantic and urgent and whenever they can because they don't know how much time together they have left.

After the wedding, things improve like they never thought they could. Margaery is kind and understanding, and doesn't mind that her husband never shares her bed. Renly and Loras act in public as they always have, as a trusted advisor and a lord and a knight and a king's brother and a friend and a friend.

Then this goes on for months. Loras gives a rose to the oldest Stark girl, while he glances a smirk to the man sitting above her, and when he jousts against the Mountain he thinks For Renly, and he sees the proud look in his lover's eyes. He thinks that if an entire army is thinking For Renly (For King Renly, his mind makes it), they could do so much, and he realizes that Renly should be king.

Not a year later Renly has been trying for the Iron Throne against Stannis, and he loses. Loses horribly; loses his life. And Loras wants to take his own but he can't, he knows he can't.

Finally, Loras passes as well in a few years, and he reaches the seven heavens (He was glad to have made it in). He's eighteen again, and he sees Renly and Renly is eighteen as well, and they embrace once more and sob with relief and grin. And they talk, and they kiss, and they act like children again, and they stay young and joyful together forever. And they get the happy ending they never thought to imagine.

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**Fin. Kind of a sad note, but also happy. Review please! (Or I shall set my direwolf on you)**


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